I think you may have me confused with this guy:Why are you in such a big hurry to dismiss Stintz and her vision?
http://www.premier.gov.on.ca/team/meetdalton.php?Lang=EN
I think you may have me confused with this guy:Why are you in such a big hurry to dismiss Stintz and her vision?
I suspect Anbarandy has no idea which side to take at this point.Meantime, another key left-wing councillor has distanced himself from OneCity. Calling it a “half-baked proposition” with “some really dangerous consequences around tax policy,” Adam Vaughan said he is particularly concerned his downtown ward could be taxed disproportionately because of dramatically rising property values.
“We need to figure out how we pay for city services, the TTC being one of them. If we do it in isolation, it leaves nothing on the table to fix some of the other pressing problems we have,” he said. “How do we finance the city’s needs over the next 20 years? Transit’s a big part of that but it’s not the only part of it.”
You're right. It is hilarious too.This gets more entertaining.
So if Stinz takes more than a week to get all the other counsellors to endorse her long-range transit ideas, you immediately conclude that this is "entertaining"? Sorry if I don't share your enthusiasm. So far, I find this transit debate tedious and mildly depressing but I know it's all part of the necessary drill before anything will ever get done. Entertaining?....not so much.This gets more entertaining. According to the Toronto Star, Rob Ford may step in to help get council's approval to study Stintz's plan:
http://www.thestar.com/news/gta/tra...on-track-after-meeting-with-mayor-s-officials
The same story says Adam Vaughan is trashing the plan.
I suspect Anbarandy has no idea which side to take at this point.
It's not about taking sides, it's about what is best for the future of the city(transit, water/sewer infrastructure and repair, livability etc)and from what we have experienced in most of the last two years, this definitely excludes our current mayor from the conversation without a doubt. It has become painfully clear that he is nothing but an impediment and obstacle at worst and a nuisance and distraction at best.This gets more entertaining. According to the Toronto Star, Rob Ford may step in to help get council's approval to study Stintz's plan:
http://www.thestar.com/news/gta/tra...on-track-after-meeting-with-mayor-s-officials
The same story says Adam Vaughan is trashing the plan.
I suspect Anbarandy has no idea which side to take at this point.
I'm still waiting to hear where the phantom $20 billion in the Stintz plan is coming from.Whatever be the case, continuing to believe that the gravy will pay for everything fairy tales emanating from our current mayor is both sad and laughable.
But as details emerged it appeared that while Ms. Stintz and her unlikely new BFF, Councillor Glenn De Baeremaeker, derived a great deal of merriment from busting out a box of Ms. Stintz’s childrens’ crayons, to draw a new transit map, they had not done much of their homework.
They had not consulted Rob Ford (still the mayor, last I checked), and who likely would have been on board with at least the OneCity plan to convert the Scarborough Rapid Transit line to a subway. They had not consulted Bob Chiarelli, the provincial minister of transportation, nor Denis Lebel, the federal minister of transport. Nor had they talked to Metrolinx, the neutered but still titular leader of transit expansion in greater Toronto.
Mr. De Baeremaeker insisted to reporters at City Hall Thursday that he thinks OneCity can survive a vote at council next week.
“We think we will have the votes,” he said. “We think we will have a transit plan for the city of Toronto built and endorsed by city council.” Asked why he didn’t consult, he said, “I can’t show you my apple pie before it’s out of the oven. Now that this apple pie, this transit plan is out of the oven and it’s full, now we have something to talk about.”
Do we get ice cream with that? Come on, Glenn, let’s face it: OneCity is dead.
Better crayons than gravy splotches.I'm still waiting to hear where the phantom $20 billion in the Stintz plan is coming from.
Meanwhile, Peter Kuitenbrouwer of the National Post says, "OneCity is basically drawn with crayons and will probably die":
http://news.nationalpost.com/2012/0...lly-drawn-with-crayons-and-will-probably-die/
Well the current mayor ensured that the 'suburbs' got half of the Transit City funding and much more than half of the rapid transit lines. Thank you mr. mayor.Unfortunately any tax hikes will end up in the general coffers. Then the horse trading begins with the downtown wards who will want their share. Or no vote will be given. Do you really think anyone living downtown with the high property taxes will want to fund transit for other wards for the next 20 years?
Ask Adam Vaughn
First, they are not in all the stations (only 20%). Second, it is still a flat fare system. The gap still stands. They want $30B and additional taxes but cannot even get fare collection right.I guess you don't actually use the TTC, or you would have seen all those "Presto" readers in all the stations.
Actually the TTC had zoned fare-by-distance decades ago. Suburbanites complained it kept them from using transit, and was 'unfair' because they paid the same taxes as everyone else. It wasn't their fault they 'had' to live where they did. So the flat-fare was broadened to get them on the TTC.First, they are not in all the stations (only 20%). Second, it is still a flat fare system. The gap still stands. They want $30B and additional taxes but cannot even get fare collection right.
groggy reread what you posted as it would appear that on the one hand you say that the rich live on subway routes(and presumeably don't need to rely on cars) and the poor in the burs. In the next sentence you appear bash Ford for his war against the car. I'm a 905'er but it seems to me that it was the Ford opponents that declared war on the car.The star has an article out today showing the decline of the middle class in Toronto since the '70's. Notable is the spread, with the rich folks all along the subway lines and the poor now in transit starved outer areas and burbs. Ford played the poor as suckers in his 'war against the car' and gravy boating. Voting him in works against their interests since they'll have less services and transit and have any changes in real estate taxes balanced by increases in service fees.
http://www.thestar.com/news/gta/article/1223391--tackling-the-income-gap-in-canadian-cities